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Manurewa MP George Hawkins has a bruised hand after fending off a large Bible which was hurled at him by a man in the audience at a church-run election meeting on Sunday night.
The incident shocked about 160 people at the meet-the-candidates event organised by Manurewa Baptist Church.
A local man in his 60s was quickly wrestled off the stage by two church members, who escorted him outside.
Mr Hawkins, who has represented Manurewa since 1990, said yesterday he was making a statement to police today and would lay an assault charge.
"I'm as good as gold but it's not the nicest thing."
He said the incident, witnessed by his wife, Jan, would not stop him going on the hustings.
"The public were invited to come up to the microphone to ask questions and I could see him ... he just kept coming and he got this Bible and raised it above his head and set it crashing towards me.
"You don't know how people will react when you are sitting on stage with five other candidates.
"You are fairly vulnerable really."
Mr Hawkins said his assailant's Bible was an 1860s edition and weighed 5kg.
He said he had seen the man before and tried to help him.
"A couple of years ago he told me this would happen."
Mr Hawkins said the man "spoke a jumble of stuff" but he felt it was necessary to lay charges "so it goes through a process and if he needs help, then he gets it".
Manurewa senior pastor Stewart Hanna said the meeting was open to all members of the community and he had not met Mr Hawkins' assailant.
Aiming for a well-run event, he took the precaution of assigning some members of the congregation to security duty.
National candidate for Manurewa Cam Calder said: "It happened very fast. A dapper guy dressed in black, who looked like a man of the cloth, got up and I thought he was going to put the Bible on the lectern."
United Future candidate Jim Stowers said: "It was an unfortunate event that went against the very positive tenor of the evening."
Family Party candidate Richard Lewis, a former frontline policeman, said: "It's a sad day when a long-time servant of the people gets treated like that at a public meeting."
